Novel Ways to Market Music

“Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple‘s new CD (“Extraordinary Machine”) arrives on shelves some time this month. Which is odd because ‘primitive’ versions of 11 of its tracks appeared on music-sharing systems in 2004. Rumors abounded that Epic (her label) wasn’t happy with it because it wasn’t ‘commercial’ enough. But critics and fans responded enthusiastically to the ‘premature’ tracks, and Epic ultimately decided to release a finished version of the album.

“So what?

“Ms. Apple’s experience suggests an approach that music publishers might take to test-marketing: Release a low-quality MP3 version of an album and see whether it gets any traction. If yes, launch the high-quality CD.”